threevoices
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BOTTOM’S DREAM
A THEATRE COMPANY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:threevoices
premiered works by
Ruth Margraff
Erik Ehn
Mac Wellman
Opens October 26th, 2001 at the Ivy Substation, Culver City
PLAYWRIGHTS: Mac Wellman, Erik Ehn, Ruth Margraff
PLAYS: The Burlesque Flogging (world premiere by Ruth Margraff), nevertire (world premiere by Erik Ehn), The Land of Fog and Whistles (west coast premiere by Mac Wellman)
DIRECTED BY: James Martin, Artistic Director, Bottom’s Dream
CAST: Alice Dodd, Bonita Friedericy, Jennifer Griffin
WHERE: The Ivy Substation Performance Space
9070 Venice Blvd. Culver City
WHEN: Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, October 26- November 18th 8:00 p.m.
TICKETS: $15.00 Free parking
RESERVATIONS and INFORMATION: 310.281.9517
Produced in association with Taboo Theatre (Michael Kaliski)
Sponsored in part by the Culver City Redevelopment Agency and L.A. County Arts Commission
WHAT IS threevoices?
threevoicesis an evening of mesmerizing lyric work from three of Americas most profound contemporary playwrights on the edge. The plays presented in this robust evening include: The Burlesque Flogging (world premiere by Ruth Margraff), nevertire (world premiere by Erik Ehn), The Land of Fog and Whistles (west coast premiere by Mac Wellman) Performed by award winning actors, Alice Dodd , Jennifer Griffin and Bonita Friedericy. All three pieces are directed by the highly acclaimed James Martin. threevoices is commissioned by Bottom’s Dream to be presented at The Historical Ivy Substation in Culver City.
threevoices from the American theatrical frontier - three writers, three actresses - stepping out onto that precarious and thrilling high-wire of solo performance - the monologue. A single voice, a single character, alone on a stage - an exquisite existential image which uses the theatre to mirror the internal, individual human experiences - memories, fantasies, dreams, desires, fears.
Our mission is to present writers who explode the traditional theatrical structure and revel in the spoken (and written) word. All three of the playwrights presented tonight are theatre poets known for their pioneering work in dramaturgy, language and the possibility of theatre. We have previously produced work by each of these three writers and we thought an evening celebrating all three of them would be fun - and provocative - for everyone: for us, to revisit their charming and thorny worlds; and for you, to experience not only their mind-bending voices, but also the invisible, ghostly dialogue between them.
The three actresses are Bottom's Dream veterans and each have previously performed work by the writer whose work they perform tonight. This evening attests to the triumph of the creative process when an actor meets a writer alone on the stage - that sense of two bodies, hearts and minds becoming one in the theatre moment - intimate and vast at the same time.
Ruth Margraff's The Burlesque Flogging (performed by Alice Dodd) came from a new full-length play, Red Frogs, which was initially commissioned by Bottom's Dream. We asked Ruth to fashion a monologue for Alice Dodd as a curtain raiser for the evening and she dove into the existing text and excised the monologue, The Burlesque Flogging. The only piece of information from the larger piece that might be helpful for you to know is that Penny, the Maid, works for a woman named Beatifica Strata, a wealthy Romance novelist and television talk-show hostess.
Erik Ehn's nevertire (performed by Jennifer Griffin) is the second installment in the Chokecherry Trilogy, commissioned by Bottom's Dream. The first play, Chokecherry, was produced by Bottom's Dream in Winter, 2000. That play concerned a seven year old child with severe multiple disabilities named Bea who was given up for adoption at birth. nevertire is the story of Bea's birth mother.
The Whitney Museum, New York, commissioned The Land of Fog and Whistles by Mac Wellman (performed here by Bonita Friedericy) in 1993 as part of the series Performance on 42nd. The Land of Fog and Whistles chronicles "a far-away time on a far-away world. Pluto, the strange and little-known ninth world. Pluto, imagined as a world destroyed by plutonium contamination nine times over."
We hope you enjoy these three stories, three writers, three performers - -
these three voices….
Producing since 1992, Bottom’s Dream has been dedicated to innovative new works that explore theatrical forms and heightened language in performance. Bottom’s Dream presents premieres of plays by American writers with bold voices and poetic imaginations. By presenting both readings and full productions, Bottom’s Dream strives to foster dialogue around the political, social and human issues that face our community. Bottom’s Dream endeavors to provide a platform for artists who share our vision and a forum for Los Angeles audiences to engage with new and provocative works.
Bottom’s Dream is based in Culver City, California and produces at the historic Ivy Substation, sponsored in part by the Culver City Redevelopment Agency. Bottom’s Dream is a founding member of the R.A.T. Conference, a national alliance of independent theatres, and collaborates on a regular basis with theatres from outside California.
Sun & Moon Press is a division of the Contemporary Arts Educational Project, Inc., a non-profit corporation, Douglas Messerli, editor. The Contemporary Arts Educational Project, Inc. has established the American Theatre in Literature program to promote American Theatre as a literary form and to educate readers about contemporary and modern theatre. The program publishes work of major American playwrights as well as younger, developing dramatists in various publishing programs of the Press, including Sun & Moon Classics (collections of plays of international significance), the Mark Taper Forum Plays, Soho Rep Plays, Undermain Theatre Plays, Bottom’s Dream Plays, Primary Stages Plays, and as regular imprint of Sun & Moon Press. We're pleased to announce that Erotic Curtsies by Erik Ehn will be published by Sun & Moon Press in 2002 as part of the Green Integer Series. Bottom’s Dream collaborated w / Sun & moon press on that project to afford playwrights an opportunity to publish their work.
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